Wednesday Links - StL Represented By Pokey

Hey, we know who's on the team. Yay!

BLUES NEWS:

• A bunch of us from the St. Louis Game Time staff put together some predictions for the season. Some of us (PICK ME PICK ME) are full of shit. Others . . . not so much. [SLGT]
• At the moment, I'm not the biggest Peter Mueller fan. Dude signed a two-way deal knowing full well that if he did not make the team, the Blues would send him to the AHL. He said all the right things in training camp about what would happen if he didn't make the team. Well . . . he didn't make the team and now has refused to report to the Wolves. Therefore, instead of, y'know, following the rules of the deal . . . the team will grant his unconditional release after he clears waivers, clearing the way for him to go back to Europe. Hey, Peter . . . do us all a favor and fucking stay there this time, please, and don't bother wasting our time if you don't plan on wasting some of your own time. Thank you. [KMOV]
• As for the rest of the team . . . well, the 23-man roster is now set, after the Blues sent Robert Fabbri back to the OHL and sent Chris Butler, Dmitrij Jaskin and Petteri Lindbohm down to the Wolves. The biggest surprise might be that Lindbohm chose NOT to go back to Finland and will report to Chicago. [SLGT]
• And Carl Gunnarsson will not play Thursday or Saturday, but has yet to be placed on injured reserve while he still recovers from offseason hip surgery. So after not playing all training camp, he's day-to-day. Which is very encouraging. [Belleville News-Democrat]
• Robb takes a look at the rise of so-called #FancyStats this offseason around the NHL. Hell, even Hitch is using #FancyStats these days, right? [SLGT]

HOCKEY NEWS:

• How do the Blues stack up in the secondary ticket market? Well, they were pretty low last year . . . but this year, they're 12th. It's like people would pay more to see a good team or something. Topping the list? The Maple Leafs, because oh no Toronto doesn't need a second team or anything. (S/T to HallPlante) [The Hockey News / Post-to-Post]
• Not many Blues fans like Adrian Dater so much these days. Hell, you could say that about a lot of non-Avs fans. Hell, you MIGHT be able to say it about a good chunk of Avalanche(s) fans. Well, he made a dumbfuck remark about an opposing player recently, and for that remark, the Denver Post suspended him for two weeks. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, right? [Puck Daddy]
• The Coyotes were very, VERY close to being in Seattle LAST year if things hadn't gone "right" in Glendale. GODDAMNIT, GLENDALE, YOU FUCKS, I WANTED HOCKEY IN SEATTLE. [Seattle Times]
• Everyone in the Puck Daddy staff (with a few new additions, by the way) seems to be high on the Blues, Stars and Blackhawks . . . and for good reason . . . and they have other things for us in their Western Conference preview. [Puck Daddy]
• The remaining teams of the Central Hockey League, all seven of them, have been absorbed by the ECHL. So now that's a 28-team league. Among those seven teams? The Missouri Mavericks. Not among those teams, obviously? The recently-defunct St. Charles Chill. [CBS Sports Eye on Hockey]
• Who's overrated? Who's underrated? Who's under-overrated? About the only thing the Puck Daddy panel doesn't do HERE is . . . tell you who's outmoded. [Puck Daddy]
• Some teams named captains . . . Brian Gionta with the Sabres, who just got there and stuff . . . [Sabres] . . . and, a bit less surprising, Ryan McDonagh with the Rangers . . . . [Blueshirts United]
• Starting on injured reserve this season? For the Bruins, David Krejci . . . [NESN] . . . and for the Blue Jackets, apart from Boone Jenner and Nathan Horton already, Brandon Dubinsky . . . and soon, perhaps Ryan Murray, their young hotshot defenseman. [CBS Sports Eye on Hockey]
  

OTHER SHIT:

• 1) Hooray, Cardinals! 2) This means a bunch of Cardinals fans (and, for that matter, players) won't have jack shit to do on Thursday . . . how about a hockey game, eh? And finally, 3) Don't be a dickbag and tell me hockey is irrelevant just for suggesting the hockey game. If you do, you're a grade A twat. [SB Nation]
• "I'd like to introduce you to Law & Order . . . my left and right fists. G'night, fuckface." [Y! / AP]

VIDEOS:

Two obscure musicians' videos and a penguin video. YES, A PENGUIN VIDEO.

First . . . an old St. Louis band called Crash Vegas makes an appearance. (S/T to adroq):

Heeeeee.

Second . . . if you like bluegrass/alt-country and are from St. Louis and don't know who Pokey LaFarge is, change that now. Here he is, trying to sing over a bunch of instruments sans-microphone, and doing an admirable job of it. (S/T to Kate):

Yes. Sir.

And finally . . . I guess I hadn't heard or had forgotten that the St. Louis Zoo has a baby penguin named Oshie. Here's a video of it. (S/T to hildymac):

BABY PENGUIN.

Send me links, yo. Send me some obscure alt-country and alt-folk videos. Send me other shit. Send it along:

• gtdonutking AT gmail DOT com
• @KingDonutI

And it appears we'll have Episode 55 of Beyond Checkerdome available for consumption later this evening. Stay tuned for that!